Friends, Family & Dennis O’Connor:

Today was my first full day in Chicago. Last night a few of the crew went
to Winston’s Steak House where they bring out huge hunks of meat to choose
from for dinner. Some of these cuts were $80!!! I cheaped out and just had
a $55 dinner – ha ha. The “Sack Man” Richard Dent, of the Legendary “Super
Bowl Shuffle” Chicago Bears, was seated at the table next to us. On the
walk back to the hotel we stopped at Dawson’s for, for some of the group,
$16 dollar “shots” of wine; of course I just had an overpriced beer. Classy
evening; but I’m not a that classy a guy.

Today was hilarious. We hit a few spots of interest in Chicago (Aquarium,
the Conservatory and Buckingham Fountain) including Gino’s Pizza where I was
drafted into extra status in front of the camera. In one scene I was “belly
up” to the bar with one of my co-workers acting like we were “on a date” and
having a good time. Hopefully none of my dancing will survive the final
cut. Then they rearranged us as diners. Vanna was serving us all Pizza. I
was placed in the back with my back to the camera which while fortunate for
the viewers, was bad for Vanna because we kept making faces/cracking jokes
at each other and a couple of times she forgot her lines. The final scene
was the whole group of us surrounding Vanna and on cue, we all had to stuff
our faces with food. Unfortunately the food was cold pizza left over from
our lunch. It was a little rough to keep big smiles on our faces.

I’m not sending this email out until tomorrow because I’m too cheap to pay
$15 for the internet hook up tonight (hey this message isn’t that
interesting). We are staying the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in; the W
Lakeshore Chicago. It has funky little designer rooms including windows and
doors (or no doors) in all the wrong places. I’m staying a couple of extra
days because the US Rugby team is in town this weekend for their last
warm-up match before heading to France for the World Cup. There are 6
Belmont Shore guys on the team which I believe is the most in my rugby
club’s history. Most likely 3 will start every match of the World Cup;
hopefully all 6 will play on Sunday. I’ll also have a couple of days to
wander the city, I’ll definitely avoid those $80 steaks. If anyone is in
town for the rugby definitely let me know. I'll check email again tomorrow
morning and Saturday Night.

_______________________________________24 hours later...

Okay, I had time to write last night because we were caught in a
thunderstorm and didn’t go out club hopping like we normally do…well today I
am convinced that G-d is anti-proletariat because just like yesterday, the
second we were done shooting a thunderstorm hits. Only this time it hit so
fast and so hard that; I was bone dry only 20 steps away from the van and by
the time I was in the van I was soaked to the bone. We had to sit in the
van for 10 minutes because we had no visibility and when we regained sight
there were 2 trees uprooted and knocked over within 40 yards of us.

Chicago seems like a nice enough place, but as soon as that rugby match is
over, I’m back to LA LA Land!!!

Take care, y’all!!!

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